Plant Images in the Book of Psalms: From Allegory to Terminal Metaphor

The article discusses the metaphorical objectification of terminal semantics in Russian linguaculture. The object of the study is plant allegories used in the Book of Psalms (10th-2nd centuries BC) to present the essence of the doctrine. As one of the varieties of changing the reference of a verbal sign and a fragment of extra-linguistic reality, allegory is a more or less random verbal illustration that is not significantly related to the conveyed idea. Allegory often has several aspects, and its interpretations can differ in depth and accuracy, depending on the underlying system of perception. As a linguistic phenomenon, allegory is expressed not only in texts, sentences, phrases, but also in univerbs, and for the latter grammatical differences are not relevant. The material of the study is the layer of nominal and predicate vocabulary of the plant sphere, actualised in psalm texts translated into Church Slavonic by Cyril and Methodius and in their main Russian translations of the 19th-21 st centuries. Examples of the functioning of these lexical units in institutional and artistic discursive practices of the 18th-21st centuries were selected from the materials of the Russian National Corpus. The aim of the study is to trace the formation of stable terminal meanings, which have entered the semantic system of Russian mainly in temporal interpretation, in some phytomorphonyms and “plant” predicates. The analysis of the definitions, labels, and illustrative material of three fundamental diachronic dictionaries of the Russian language, the modern Small Academic Dictionary of Russian (MAS), and Church Slavonic lexicons made it possible to describe the semantic “drift” of some nominal and predicate nominations of the plant sphere, that is, how they developed full-fledged temporal semes and formed of habitual phase connotations and free associations. The metaphorical model, formed in the semantic system of Russian, allowed the development of terminal meanings for the phytomorphonyms and “plant predicates” that are not found in the Book of Psalms, which indicates its productivity. The consequence of the considered semantic evolution was the entry of units beginning and end with their “limiting” semes into constant semiotic oppositions. The poles of these oppositions are relevant and unequally elaborated in the Church Slavonic and Russian linguacultures. The analysis of the material once again confirmed the independence of culture and language as sign systems.

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